New building material: reinforced foam concrete or fiber foam concrete block with cladding

Many people know the building block made of aerated concrete - foam concrete. Unfortunately, it is often confused with autoclaved aerated concrete. Although they are similar in appearance and structure, they differ in characteristics.

Foam concrete has a lower compressive strength, half the frost resistance and shrinkage of the material in the masonry up to 3 mm / m (autoclaved aerated concrete has 10 times less shrinkage). Because of this indicator, plastered walls made of aerated concrete are often covered with cracks.

Some manufacturers of foam concrete on their websites call their products aerated concrete, which misleads buyers. And for many, foam concrete and autoclaved aerated concrete are the same. Responsible manufacturers of foam concrete are aware of the low strength of their products and high shrinkage of the material and are trying to combat this by adding fiber to the composition.

Add 1% fiber to the volume of blocks. This definitely increases the tensile strength and partly the compressive strength. But how much it reduces the shrinkage of the material is a question. I have not found any information on whether any laboratory tests have been carried out. Are there any numbers that can be compared with the characteristics of aerated concrete. Performance is improving, but how much?

In addition to this innovation, some workshops produce foam blocks immediately with decorative facing tiles. This technique is used by manufacturers of other blocks: wood concrete, expanded clay concrete and heat block. Apparently, such foam concrete is produced as follows:

A pre-made facing tile is laid on the bottom of the molds and poured with a foamed composition. After the minimum set of strength, the formwork is disassembled, the blocks are removed. Within 28 days, the block gains basic strength like concrete.

But aerated concrete, after being autoclaved, gains strength faster and its strength indicators are higher.

What I liked about the fiber-reinforced concrete block with facing is that there is a groove-comb system. Blocks need less control during laying, less blowing through the masonry when mistakes are made (wasteland):

The blocks are available in different colors of decorative tiles. The dark corners can be distinguished in the masonry of the walls.

Basically, the density of such foam concrete blocks is D 600 and they will pass according to heat engineering calculations with a maximum width of 400 mm only for the southern regions of the country. And because of the decorative tiles, it makes no sense to insulate them.

Fiber-reinforced concrete blocks are laid both on thin-layer mineral glue for cellular concrete, and on glue-foam:

Examples of building houses from fiber-reinforced foam blocks with facing tiles can be found here: https://www.sarmat-tornado.ru/главная/строительство-домов-из-фибропеноблоков

After the walls are erected, there is one difficulty - it is the sealing of the joints between the tiles. A very painstaking and lengthy process. How this is done is shown in the video: https://youtu.be/o3S4FWIGAKs

Would I have purchased this material? Not seeing the characteristics of laboratory tests is unlikely for a home. Even taking into account the fact that foam concrete is cheaper and with decorative finishes. There is no gas and the Siberian climate is not conducive to buying the density of D600.

Foam concrete may still differ in strength from batch to batch, because it's still handicraft. Fiber will correct mistakes, but how much? And the heat engineering characteristics are inferior to aerated concrete.

But for the garage - the material is interesting. Immediately with finishing cladding. Fast laying on glue-foam. And if the fiber foam block still does not form cracks on the plaster during shrinkage, then such a modification of foam concrete is even more interesting.

Who thinks about this type of foam block - write in the comments.

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